by The Baker
[Jason]: A pie for the end of school and the start of summer. This recipe makes me want to chill out with a slice of Ace of Cake’s new EP, The Bakery.
Blueberry Pie with Sweet Corn Ice Cream Continue reading
Tag Archives: Baking
Mango Chutney Truffles
by The Baker
Mango Chutney Truffle
120 grams cream
25 grams glucose
120 grams milk chocolate, chopped
150 grams dark chocolate, chopped
25 grams butter, room temperature
100 grams mango chutney, chopped
confectioner’s sugar
1. Heat cream and glucose in a small saucepan over medium heat. Put both chocolates into a small bowl. When steam begins to rise from the cream, pour mixture over the chopped chocolate.
2. Let mixture sit for 30 seconds, then stir with a rubber spatula (do not use a whisk–you do not want to incorporate air into the ganache).
3. Add the butter, stir to combine, then fold in the chutney. Cover the mixture with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature overnight.
4. Form the ganache into balls (easiest method is to use a small ice cream scoop) and roll in confectioner’s sugar.
Goat Cheese Brownies
by The Baker
Goat Cheese Brownies
10 tablespoons cold goat butter, cubed
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 ounces chèvre
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 egg
4 egg yolks
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter and flour a 9×13-inch baking dish.
2. In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, beat the butter, chèvre and sugar on medium speed for 5 minutes.
3. Add the melted chocolate and beat to incorporate. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat in the whole egg and the egg yolks one at a time. Add the vanilla and mix to incorporate.
4. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the flour mixture. Pour into the dish and bake for 25 minutes. Allow brownies to cool to room temperature before cutting.
The Best Raisin Bran Muffins In The World
Although I wish, with all my heart, with desperate cliche and a longing settled somewhere beneath my bowels, to divulge the recipe for ‘the best raisin bran muffins in the world’—I cannot. It is not my recipe to give. Its provenance and its product will be my heart secrets. Continue reading
Filed under Recipes, Theory and Criticism
Rye Pecan Pie with Buttermilk Ice Cream
We have a new contributor—he prefers to remain anonymous, so we’ll just call him The Baker. His recipes review classic American cookery from new vistas. With his admiration for tradition but penchant for innovation, he brings an alternative aesthetic to conventional desserts.
Rye Pecan Pie with Buttermilk Ice Cream (Recipe after the jump.) Continue reading
Pics or it Didn’t Happen: Buttermilk Pie
Zach Bell, Yale University
When my Dad requested a buttermilk pie, I was immediately skeptical. Buttermilk, a fermented version of cow milk, is thicker because the acid content (which also gives it a sour taste) denatures, or unravels the milk proteins (mostly casein). I used cultured buttermilk, made with lactic acid bacteria, for more thickness. For a smoother texture, I creamed the butter and mixed in the sugar.
With the addition of egg yolks and flour… Continue reading
Filed under Food, Pics or it Didn't Happen, pie, Zach B.
Pics or it Didn’t Happen: Butterscotch Pie
Zach Bell, Yale University
I made a butterscotch pie using the standard egg custard as the base and adding brown sugar and butter, the base ingredients of butterscotch flavor. The egg custard flavor was immediately evident, so I did not get the “Hershey’s” style butterscotch, the cloying, saccharine, sticky butterscotch. Instead, the butterscotch flavor emerged from the background, more of a rich aftertaste than an anvil of flavor falling from the sky.
Continue reading
Filed under Food, Pics or it Didn't Happen, pie, Zach B.
Pics or it Didn’t Happen: Peanut Butter Cookies
Zach Bell, Yale University
Everyone likes a good peanut butter cookie. When I say a good peanut butter cookie, I mean that there should be no healthy ingredients included. These particular cookies involved two sticks of butter, brown sugar, white sugar, and peanut butter.
Ah, a delicious cookie, well proportioned, with the traditional grid pattern on top. When one asks for a peanut butter cookie, one expects such a paragon example. Continue reading
Filed under Pics or it Didn't Happen, Zach B.
Saving the Cake: Making Mistakes and the Process of Perfection
Cooking isn’t really about making mistakes.
In fact, as Michael Ruhlman so elegantly articulates in his book The Soul of a Chef, cooking constitutes a journey towards perfection, a search for flawless product and execution that never ends. American schools emphasize the accidental and imperfect nature of science—Fleming messed up and discovered Penicillin! And recent developments in culinary historiography emphasize “grandmother cooking,” a certain imprecision and willingness to err. But this seemingly American desire to revel (and perhaps wallow) in optimistic failure conflicts with the ultimate goal of professional cookery. Maybe this tension explains why so many Americans are uncomfortable with European-style fine dining that focuses on control over the minutest imperfections. Continue reading
Filed under Miscellaneous
Comfort Food Is Fake
Comfort food is a sham.
I like matzo brei as much as the next guy, and expect me to reach for that last chocolate chip cookie. But when comfort food becomes depersonalized and taken to absurd extremes, count me out of the Luther Burger party.
Not to rain on the collective bacon grease macaroni and cheese hot dog parade, but the majority of so-called “comfort food” served in New York City and across the country exists merely to deceive. In fact, the next haute fried chicken leg or blackberry pie shake you consume will bamboozle your senses and confound your memory. Yes, comfort food usually tastes indulgently delicious, if cardiovascular assault. Yet, delude yourself no longer: you’re not eating comfort food, no matter how full and “whole” it makes you feel. Continue reading
Filed under Dining Suggestions, Miscellaneous
